PATENT SHAFT
“THE GATES HAVE BEEN SAVED”
The Patent Shaft and Axeltree Company Est 1840
The companies origins can be traced to around 1830
Re-named in 1959 to The Patent Shaft Steel Works Limited.
VIDEO: Steel Making Process From Start to Finish, How it’s Made, courtesy of Cineistfilm.
This website was set up for one object only; To gain local support and save the Patent Shaft Gates from the “Scrap yard”.
I am delighted to say that with enormous support not only locally & Nationally
but also from “totally unexpected” areas of the world, the website has played it’s part and achieved its Goal.
Many, Many thanks to you all, from myself and I am sure thanks from the thousands of employees that passed through the Patent Shaft Gates to play their part, in producing Steel “24 hours a day 7 days a week” To build structures all over the globe. Example
Although the objective of saving the gates has been achieved, photographs and information of these structures continue to arrive from around the world so I will continue to add these to the website to remind us of the past history of this historic company and also pay tribute to the workers and their achievements.
The Patent Shaft Gates
now sit proudly in the heart of the community refurbished and re sited on the traffic island by the new Bus station.
The Mission
The Mission Of this website is to bring together people that remember this large steelworks, some however will not have fond memories as it was not the most healthiest place on earth, health and safety was not on the agenda then as it is today.
However the gates will have memories, they are not pearly gates but they deserve to be saved.
The Patents Shaft was a good employer for Wednesbury and the surrounding areas, see article kindly provided by Linda Farrington” Brunswick Park”. You may not have worked there but you may have played in Brunswick Park as a child, I served an apprenticeship at the Patent Shaft which has certainly given me a good standing in life that I have grown to appreciate more as I have aged.
Sadly we are not training young people today as companies did in the past and the UK is now paying the price of loosing it’s industry and practical skills in particular steel production, but it should not be forgotton.
The Past
The Patent Shaft origins can be traced to around 1830. Unfortunately for those of us that can remember the decline in the industry around 1970 large factories in the area were faced with closure, the Patent Shaft being one of them when it closed in 1980, I can still picture the redundant workers standing around the town centre, the closure left hundreds out of work, my father being one. It was a sad day when the gates were closed, and they look even worse now.
The Gates today.
I visited Wednesbury recently and decided to make a visit and seek out the old gates, which I had passed through day and night on my shift rota, I was hoping to take a photograph to place beside the long service awards my grandfather and father had truly earned working in noisy, dusty, hot and dangerous conditions, however everyone was proud of their jobs as it was a family orientated environment, I was 14 years old when I started as an apprentice and managed to do around 14 years, unfortunately no long service award for me, I dare say however if I had not set up my own business I would have followed in their footsteps.
Together we can save the gates
If you feel like me that our history is being eroded just like these gates then please help me to restore these gates and the history they stand for. WELL!! Together it worked. If you have any comments, photos or maybe a bit of history to add to this new website then please email to the address below. I will endeavor with your help to restore these gates and hopefully the memories they represented.
I would like to thank Chris Moriarty for running the article in the Express & Star as I know it will be of great help in kick starting the project. I thank Chris and the newspaper again for keeping the article alive as I have just heard that the gates are to be repaired and re-sited.